Once Upon a Tide by Stephanie Kate Strohm

Author:Stephanie Kate Strohm [Strohm, Stephanie Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Disney Book Group
Published: 2021-09-14T00:00:00+00:00

I make the sixth hash mark on the calendar in my closet. Today is over, and that’s the only good thing I can say about it. Tomorrow can’t come soon enough. I have got to get back home.

I’ve made a mess of everything. I’ve accomplished exactly nothing as an ambassador—obviously no one here even knows I’m an ambassador. If anything, I’m an anti-ambassador, because the prank Finnian and I pulled at the Pirate Polo Match probably just made the land-livers think even worse things about merpeople. We could have caused an international incident! Yoric the Young never would have pulled something like that. What was I thinking?

A knock at the door echoes through the room.

“Yeah?” I stick my head out of the closet to hear.

“It’s me.” Aarav. I take a seat on my bed. “Can I come in?”

“Sure.”

Aarav enters and gently closes the door behind him. This time, however, he doesn’t sit on the bed. Instead, he paces.

“I know I messed up, okay?” I break the silence. “I had no idea everyone would freak out like that. I thought they would think it was…fun,” I finish lamely.

“Look, I know you like a good prank—and you and Finnian have pulled some epic ones this summer. Wrapping the throne room in seaweed? Hilarious. Filling my bed with starfish? I wasn’t even mad. You got me! But the Lana I know would never ever do something to disrupt a royal event,” Aarav says. “She always represents her people proudly, no matter where she is or what she’s doing. I mean, come on, Lana. You’re the only person who managed to stay awake and smiling during that Salute to Sea Slugs parade.”

That was incredibly boring. But when I’m doing stuff for Clarion, it always feels worth it to put my best fin forward, no matter how many sea slugs I have to wave at.

“It’s different up here. You know what these land-livers are like. All they do is make fun of us!”

“Some of them…haven’t been great,” he admits. “But you don’t punish the whole school because of a few rotten fish. The Pirate Polo Match is really important. With all those different countries involved, this could have been really bad for the Hills. And Clarion, too!” Great. Even my little brother has a better head for foreign policy than I do. “And you know that event is Grandpa’s favorite part of the Royal Festival. He looks forward to it every year.”

Of course he does. And now he has to go a whole year without it. Because of me. Why didn’t I think about that?

But instead of admitting how bad I feel, I just mutter, “It was supposed to be a joke.”

The look Aarav shoots me is so filled with disappointment, I have to look away. The fact that I’ve let him down is crushing me, almost like it’s a physical thing, taking up too much space in this room.

“I feel like you’re becoming another person,” Aarav says eventually. “Another person who…well, another person.”

He couldn’t

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